Tio Manuel

A set ranging from tex-mex to folk ballad, from urban blues to Latino refrains.

A set that ranges from tex-mex to folk ballad, from urban blues to Latino refrains. A music that has the taste of warm beer, dusty roads and colorful neighborhoods. No need to search for the concept: it's raw, festive, generous.

As if Calexico had taken a detour through Champigny-sur-Marne. We knew him in the 80s, guitar slung across his shoulder and worn-out jacket, within the Wunderbach, a punk-rock French band that sent as much energy as a Clash concert on amphetamines.

Manu Castillo – later known as Tio Manuel – forged his style there: direct, electric, no tricks. Then came the time of parallel roads: Outsiders, Catch 22 with Joe Hell (ex-Oberkampf), or even gigs for La Souris Déglinguée.

In short, a youth spent "strengthening his playing" Joe Strummer style, Val-de-Marne version. Now settled in Brittany, the man cultivates his love of American sonorities and desert spaces that he sprinkles with singing in Spanish, from where he draws his roots.

In 2002, under the alias Tio Manuel, he recorded Rumba Urbana.